Abstract: A method for identifying assets is provided. The method includes illuminating an identification pattern associated with the asset with non-visible light. The identification pattern includes retroreflective material that represents identity information of the asset. The method further includes adjusting either a shutter speed of an image sensor, or a power of the non-visible light, or both, based on motion state of the asset. The image sensor is configured to receive response of the retroreflective material to the non-visible light. Furthermore, the method includes the step of identifying the asset based on decoded identity information. The decoded identity information is obtained by processing the response of the retroreflective material.

Abstract: In accordance with one aspect of the present technique, a method includes receiving one or more videos from one or more image capture devices. The method further includes generating a video-loop of the person from the one or more videos. The video-loop depicts the person in the commercial site. The method also includes generating an action clip from the video-loop. The action clip includes a suspicious action performed by the person in the commercial site. The method further includes generating an activity summary of the person including the video-loop and the action clip.

Abstract: In accordance with one aspect of the present technique, a method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a new video from one or more sensors and generating a new content graph (CG) based on the new video. The method also includes comparing the new CG with a plurality of prior CGs. The method further includes identifying a first portion of the new CG matching a portion of a first prior CG and a second portion of the new CG matching a portion of the second prior CG. The method further includes analyzing a first set of semantic annotations (SAs) associated with the portion of the first prior CG and a second set of SAs associated with the portion of the second prior CG. The method further includes generating a sequence of SAs for the new video based on the analysis of the first and the second set of SAs.

Abstract: A method for image alignment is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes acquiring a facial image of a person and using a discriminative face alignment model to fit a generic facial mesh to the facial image to facilitate locating of facial features. The discriminative face alignment model may include a generative shape model component and a discriminative appearance model component. Further, the discriminative appearance model component may have been trained to estimate a score function that minimizes the angle between a gradient direction and a vector pointing toward a ground-truth shape parameter. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method for detecting and tracking a target includes detecting the target using a plurality of feature cues, fusing the plurality of feature cues to form a set of target hypotheses, tracking the target based on the set of target hypotheses and a scene context analysis, and updating the tracking of the target based on a target motion model.

Abstract: A system and method for estimating a set of landmarks for a large image ensemble employs only a small number of manually labeled images from the ensemble and avoids labor-intensive and error-prone object detection, tracking and alignment learning task limitations associated with manual image labeling techniques. A semi-supervised least squares congealing approach is employed to minimize an objective function defined on both labeled and unlabeled images. A shape model is learned on-line to constrain the landmark configuration. A partitioning strategy allows coarse-to-fine landmark estimation.

Abstract: Homography-based imaging apparatus and method are provided. The apparatus may include a processor (44) coupled to process respective sequences of sky images respectively acquired by physical image acquisition devices 181 and 182 at respective spaced apart locations (e.g., P1, P2). The processor may include an image alignment module (32) configured to spatially relate respective views of at least one object (e.g., clouds, aerial vehicles) visible in the respective sequences of the sky images based on homography (42) of at least one astronomical image acquired at each spaced apart location. The astronomical image may include a number of spatial references corresponding to respective astronomical body positions located practically at infinity relative to a respective distance between the spaced apart locations. Further views (synthetic views) may be generated at selectable new locations (e.g., P3, P4, P5, P6), without actually having any physical image acquisition devices at such selectable locations.

Abstract: A technique for optimizing object recognition is disclosed. The technique includes receiving at least one image of an object and at least one reference image. The technique further includes identifying at least one performance metric corresponding to an object recognition task. The identified performance metric is optimized to generate the corresponding optimized performance metric by determining an optimal subspace based on a determined objective function corresponding to the object recognition task and a difference between the received image and the corresponding reference image. Subsequently, the technique includes comparing the received image with the reference image based on the optimized performance metric for performing the object recognition task.

Abstract: A novel technique for unsupervised feature selection is disclosed. The disclosed methods include automatically selecting a subset of a feature of an image. Additionally, the selection of the subset of features may be incorporated with a congealing algorithm, such as a least-square-based congealing algorithm. By selecting a subset of the feature representation of an image, redundant and/or irrelevant features may be reduced or removed, and the efficiency and accuracy of least-square-based congealing may be improved.

Abstract: Systems provided herein include a learning environment and an agent. The learning environment includes an avatar and an object. A state signal corresponding to a state of the learning environment includes a location and orientation of the avatar and the object. The agent is adapted to receive the state signal, to issue an action capable of generating at least one change in the state of the learning environment, to produce a set of observations relevant to a task, to hypothesize a set of action models configured to explain the observations, and to vet the set of action models to identify a learned model for the task.

Abstract: A method for image alignment is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes acquiring a facial image of a person and using a discriminative face alignment model to fit a generic facial mesh to the facial image to facilitate locating of facial features. The discriminative face alignment model may include a generative shape model component and a discriminative appearance model component. Further, the discriminative appearance model component may have been trained to estimate a score function that minimizes the angle between a gradient direction and a vector pointing toward a ground-truth shape parameter. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: An advertising system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a processor and a memory including application instructions for execution by the processor. The application instructions may include a visual analytics engine to analyze visual information including human activity and a content engine separate from the visual analytics engine to provide advertising content to one or more potential customers. Further, the instructions may include an interface module to enable information generated from analysis of the human activity by the visual analytics engine to be transferred to the content engine in accordance with a specification in which the information generated is characterized with a hierarchical, object-oriented data structure. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: An advertising system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an advertising display configured to provide an advertisement to potential customers and a camera configured to capture images of the potential customers when the potential customers pass the advertising display. The system may also include an image processing system having a processor and a memory. The memory may include application instructions for execution by the processor, and the image processing system may be configured to execute the application instructions to derive usage characteristics of the potential customers with respect to the advertising display through analysis of the captured images. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: An advertising system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an advertising station configured to output advertising content to a potential customer and a data processing system including a processor and a memory having application instructions for execution by the processor. The application instructions may include an identification engine to identify the potential customer, a tracking engine to track encounters between the potential customer and the advertising station, and a content engine to select the advertising content to be output to the potential customer based on the tracked encounters between the potential customer and the advertising station. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: A tracking and recognition system is provided. The system includes a computer vision-based identity recognition system configured to recognize one or more persons, without a priori knowledge of the respective persons, via an online discriminative learning of appearance signature models of the respective persons. The computer vision-based identity recognition system includes a memory physically encoding one or more routines, which when executed, cause the performance of constructing pairwise constraints between the unlabeled tracking samples. The computer vision-based identity recognition system also includes a processor configured to receive unlabeled tracking samples collected from one or more person trackers and to execute the routines stored in the memory via one or more algorithms to construct the pairwise constraints between the unlabeled tracking samples.

Abstract: A system and method for estimating a set of landmarks for a large image ensemble employs only a small number of manually labeled images from the ensemble and avoids labor-intensive and error-prone object detection, tracking and alignment learning task limitations associated with manual image labeling techniques. A semi-supervised least squares congealing approach is employed to minimize an objective function defined on both labeled and unlabeled images. A shape model is learned on-line to constrain the landmark configuration. A partitioning strategy allows coarse-to-fine landmark estimation.

Abstract: A novel technique for performing video matting, which is built upon a proposed image matting algorithm that is fully automatic is disclosed. The disclosed methods utilize a PCA-based shape model as a prior for guiding the matting process, so that manual interactions required by most existing image matting methods are unnecessary. By applying the image matting algorithm to these foreground windows, on a per frame basis, a fully automated video matting process is attainable. The process of aligning the shape model with the object is simultaneously optimized based on a quadratic cost function.

Abstract: An advertising system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes an advertising station including a display and configured to provide advertising content to potential customers via the display and one or more cameras configured to capture images of the potential customers when proximate to the advertising station. The system may also include a data processing system to analyze the captured images to determine gaze directions and body pose directions for the potential customers, and to determine interest levels of the potential customers in the advertising content based on the determined gaze directions and body pose directions. Various other systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method for image alignment is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes acquiring a facial image of a person and using a discriminative face alignment model to fit a generic facial mesh to the facial image to facilitate locating of facial features. The discriminative face alignment model may include a generative shape model component and a discriminative appearance model component. Further, the discriminative appearance model component may have been trained to estimate a score function that minimizes the angle between a gradient direction and a vector pointing toward a ground-truth shape parameter. Additional methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention aims at providing a method for detecting a signal structure from a moving vehicle. The method for detecting signal structure includes capturing an image from a camera mounted on the moving vehicle. The method further includes restricting a search space by predefining candidate regions in the image, extracting a set of features of the image within each candidate region and detecting the signal structure accordingly.